Being flexible ain’t all it’s cracked up to be

I’ve written about this before, here. But I think it’s important to talk about again.

People associate yoga with flexibility.

I do associate the word flexibility with yoga, but it’s in how we apply flexibility to our life.

That is, we have lots of choices available to us.

People often get stuck and then their choices become smaller, and smaller, and smaller… until they feel something a little like this; boxed in.

What I’m really looking for is this:

Freedom.

Do you have freedom, to do what you want in your life?

Do you have the freedom to BE you?

Skills that may aid in this might be strength. Physical strength if you want to move around in the world. Be able to go jogging, walking, cycling. Even to simply pick up and play with your kids/grandkids.

Maybe you are an office worker or writer and need to sit a lot of the day. What skills might be useful to do that?

A skill may be the ability to voice your opinions at work?

Or the skills required to get a good night’s sleep, so you have the energy for the coming day.

A useful skill may be noticing what creates tension in your body.

Try sitting in a dentist chair for any length of time and notice how you feel? A sore jaw, perhaps, makes sense. But what might your shoulders feel like? Or your leg muscles? Imagine doing this, unknowingly creating tension throughout the day, and what it might create? Pain, fatigue, stiff or sore muscles.

I’m going to challenge you to change things up this week. Whatever you think you should be doing, (in a movement, in your posture) whatever you’ve been told to do… do the opposite.

As an example, while you’re sitting during the day:

If you have a tendency to hold yourself rigid, perhaps with your shoulders pulled back, chest puffed out front, sitting up nice and tall, as some would say ‘good posture’, allow yourself something different. Perhaps slump a little, let the upper back round a little, feel as if you can soften the area between your collar bones, let your belly be soft and full when you breathe. RelaxI’m not saying this is what you need or you should sit this way all day. But try it for a few minutes and notice what you feel.

If you tend to be someone who is generally in a slumped position when sitting, try the opposite. Feel your sitting bones on the bottom of your chair, perhaps even pushing them into your chair slightly. Think about sitting tall, imagining your head feeling light above your shoulders, it lifting towards the ceiling. Collarbones wide, shoulder blades down your back. Notice what you feel.

Though this is only one example. You might try this way of being, or doing, in a multitude of ways.

In yoga, do you always exhale when forward bending and inhale on the reverse? Try changing it up and see what you feel. What do you notice?

Experiment with doing the opposite of what you think is right for you, what you’ve been told is right for you and see how it goes. If you like, comment below so we can take the conversation further.

Look at a baby or a young child for a few moments and you’ll notice they make all kinds of movements, in all kinds of ways. I watched a video yesterday and thought back to the crazy, wild, wonderful things we did as kids with no thought or consideration about how to move our bodies.

Look at old or aging people and what do you notice? I suspect it would be unsteadiness, stiffness, feet shuffling, bending or moving with great care. For me, the word rigidity comes to mind.

Rigidity – Not able to be bent easily, not easily changed, not willing to change opinions or behavior.

What happened between then and now, new and old? What does the future look like in terms of your body’s ability to get around in the world?

Today I noticed a question on a Facebook site, “If there was one thing you could change about yoga what would it be?”

One of the responses was “Having people talk about flexibility the moment I mention I teach yoga.”

Flexible – able to change or be changed easily according to the situation; able to bend or be bent easily without breaking.

You could also add – the ability to be easily modified, willingness to change or compromise.

People always link yoga with flexibility which can be true. I want you to think of flexibility, however, in a slightly different context than the ‘bendy’ flexible yogi.

You don’t need to have a ‘bendy’ body to do yoga or live your life. However, you DO want to be able to manage the task at hand, whatever that might be for you personally.

You want to have options, multiple ways of navigating rather than narrow lines, restrictions, or rigidity.

How can you do this? How do you go from feeling stuck and/or experiencing chronic pain to feeling flexible in this context?

That you have options in your body, in your life?

Follow along… and we’ll find a way to bridge the gap.

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